[Wikitech-l] Announcing 'Map improvements 2018'

Hello, Over the next four months, the WMF Collaboration team will be making improvements to mapping software (Kartographer) and related functions. The team’s engagement with maps was prompted in part by the overwhelming support the maps community gave the 2017 Community Wishlist proposal "Cartographer Improvements" [0]. The project, which we’re calling Map Improvements 2018, is currently in its very early research and planning stages. It has a limited term that’s scheduled to conclude at the end of June. The immediate goals of the Map Improvements project are: * To ensure that Kartographer and the associated maps technology stack are stable and can be easily maintained as maps gain a wider audience. * To accomplish the two “main wishes” named in the Community Wishlist proposal, along with as many of the other wishes as are possible in the time provided. The main wishes are T112948 [2], “All map location names should be shown in the user's language” (an extremely challenging but crucial job), and T180907 [3], “Add zoom level 19.” Goals that relate to extending maps to a wider audience—such as bringing mapframe functionality to English Wikipedia (as requested by RfC) and making sure that mapframe works properly on wikis that use Flagged Revisions—are also under serious consideration. Please visit the project page on MediaWiki.org <http://mediawiki.org/> to learn more and share your ideas and questions. [4] Joe _____________________ Joe Matazzoni Product Manager, Collaboration Wikimedia Foundation, San Francisco [0] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/2017_Community_Wishlist_Survey/Miscellaneou… <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/2017_Community_Wishlist_Survey/Miscellaneous/Kartographer_improvements> [1] https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Map_improvements_2018 <https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Map_improvements_2018> [2] https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T112948 <https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T112948> [3] https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T180907 <https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T180907> [4] https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Map_improvements_2018 <https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Map_improvements_2018>